Stephen Barclay FINALLY takes the Brexit Plan C to Brussels

Stephen Barclay will finally hold talks with the EU today on a 'plan C' Brexit hatched by Leave and Remain Tories.

The Brexit Secretary is holding a new round of talks with EU negotiator Michel Barnier and will discuss 'alternative arrangements' for the Irish border backstop proposed by Tory MPs.

The MPs want to replace the current backstop proposal with a technology-based solution for managing the flow of people and goods across an invisible Irish border.

They insist it is better than the current proposal of keeping Britain in the EU customs union until a new UK-EU trade deal is struck. Brexiteers fear this 'backstop' would become permanent.

Mr Barnier is expected to reject the idea - and the EU has already said versions of the idea seen in the past do not work because the technology does not exist.

Mr Barclay's trip today is the first act in a diplomatic blitz planned by Prime Minister Theresa May this week.

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox will make a speech on the backstop issue tomorrow before Mrs May travels back to Brussels, possibly as soon as Wednesday.

The PM also plans to speak to every EU leader as she scrambles to break the deadlock with just 39 days to go. 

Stephen Barclay (file image) will finally hold talks with the EU today on a 'plan C' Brexit hatched by Leave and Remain Tories

Stephen Barclay (file image) will finally hold talks with the EU today on a 'plan C' Brexit hatched by Leave and Remain Tories

Mr Barclay's trip today is the first act in a diplomatic blitz planned by Prime Minister Theresa May (pictured in Maidenhead yesterday)  this week 

Mr Barclay's trip today is the first act in a diplomatic blitz planned by Prime Minister Theresa May (pictured in Maidenhead yesterday)  this week 

Over the weekend, Mrs May pleaded for Tory unity as she set out the steps the Government is taking to try and change the Brexit deal ahead of a second vote on it.

But Brexiteers dismissed the efforts as a 'waste of time' in private WhatsApp message.

And the concerns of critics will have escalated after Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright suggested the Government would accept changes short of re-opening the divorce deal.

Brexiteers say the only solution is to re-write the backstop or delete it entirely.   

In a letter to her MPs, Mrs May pleaded with them to unite and deliver on Brexit. She said they should 'move beyond what divides us' and sacrifice 'personal preferences' for the national interest.

The Premier said the result was 'disappointing' by another Commons defeat on Valentine's Day but vowed that the Government would continue its work to secure changes to the Irish border backstop.

In an appeal for unity 41 days before Britain's scheduled departure, Mrs May said as party leader she had sought to 'steer a course that can unite all pragmatic points of view behind a clear and coherent policy' which honours

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